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The Odyssey of a young girl running
away from her Chelmsford home to big
bad London, where she finds temporary
accommodation with black-sheep-of-thefamily
Uncle John who is enjoying a successful
career as the drag queen and
night club proprietor "Jolene", in (of all
places) Muswell Hill. She goes through a
series of adventures, romantic and otherwise,
in pursuit of her dream of running a
sophisticated café/restaurant, and we
watch her personal unfolding brought
about by the process.
The opening chapters seem light
and amusing and are written in a style
so straightforward and conversational
as to seem almost artless. This is not
however a criticism, because it ensures
that the author doesn't intrude into what
is in fact a very involving and quite
touching rites-of-passage story about
growing up and pursuing your dreams
in the adult world. Although the early
chapters are played almost entirely for
laughs, as the story progresses many
extra layers emerge (and it becomes a
little raunchy), but the lightness of touch
is never lost. Angie and Uncle John turn
into far more human and engaging
characters than we might have expected,
with emotional lives that the reader
can no longer dismiss as comic hyperbole.
This is in fact a much better and
more serious book than it seems at
first. It deals with the struggle of a
young girl to break away from home
and become a person in her own right
who is then strong enough to take on
the task of mending her damaged relationship
with her mother and finding
emotional anchors in a new world away
from home. Few of us will fail to see
something of our own story in Angie's.
Most of all though, it's great entertainment,
and you'll find yourself wanting
to read it as quickly as you can to find
out what happens next.
This would be a perfect book to
give to a teenage girl who isn't much
interested in reading. The author
seems completely at ease with her
teens/twenties heroine and presents
her with affection and understanding
and without a whiff of condescension or
disapproval. As a result, we like her too
and care about what happens to her
and how her plans pan out. For a light
but not brain-dead summer read you
won't go far wrong with this one.
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